EDUCATION bosses have come under fire after turning down a little girl's plea to go to school with her sister.

Terri Ann Jinks, 11, has been unable to attend classes since September because Brine Leas School in Nantwich is full.

New families moving to the Cronkinson Farm estate nearby have put the specialist technology school under more pressure to provide places when it already has more than 1,030 children on its books.

It means Terri Ann has to be taught from home by her parents while her sister Tracey, 13, attends one of the most popular schools in Cheshire.

Since the Jinks family moved from Wrenbury to a bigger house in Church Row, Bunbury a year ago, they have been caught up in a placement wrangle.

An independent appeal panel has rejected their plea for a place and now Crewe and Nantwich MP Gwyneth Dunwoody is taking up the case.

Dad Terry Jinks said: 'Both girls went to Wrenbury Primary School and have friends who have moved up to Brine Leas.

'Tracey has attended since she was 11 and Terri Ann should have started in September but all this time she has been at home, missing out on a proper education and feeling very lonely.

'Cheshire County Council's education department is wrong to let this go on any longer.'

Mr Jinks, a groom at stables in Wren-bury and his partner Sandra Robinson, a nurse at Leighton Hospital, are juggling work rotas to care for Terri Ann at home, do work with her and run her sister to school.

Ms Robinson said: 'When we moved to Bunbury we planned to send both girls to Tarporley High School but they were badly bullied round here and we switched our application for Terri Ann back to Brine Leas.

'By then it was too late and even though the council knows about all the trouble we have had, the girls cannot go to school together.'

In a letter to the family on January 12 Mrs Dunwoody said she would take up the matter with education chiefs. A Cheshire Education spokesman said: 'The county council has repeatedly tried to meet the parents' changing demands.

'Their child was offered a place at Brine Leas a year ago, however in March they asked for a place at Tarporley instead.

'Tarporley at the time was full but a place was gained on appeal. But then in June we were told a place for the child was now needed at Brine Leas.

'None was available and the appeal was turned down alongside many other parents'.'